The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-30
FUNERALS IN MEXICO.


How an Enterprisins Stockho4der Maae
His Street-C Ir Shares Pay.
In the City CT Mexico every body
rides. They patrorize the street cars
when a carriage can be obtained
cheaper. That is one can get car
riage for % and so cents an hour,
when one knows how to do it. The
| street car fares cost l24 and 25 cents.
yet the cabman sleeps on his elevated
| post of honor while the cars overflow at
both ends. The cars in the City OF
Mexico run on ninety miles of rails and
last year carried $500. 600 passengers.
The company OWNS 2.0O0 mules and
horses, 175 first-class coaches, 50
secOnd-class, 50 platform or freight
cars and Sc funeral cars, according TO
the statistics furnished me. They pay
an annual dividend of per cent. on Il
capital of s., 100, 900, yet they rival the
Interstate Commerce bill on their liber-
ality with passes. In q whole year only
six were issued. and they were given to
Government officials.
All the cars start from the Zocalo, the
center square of the city, which faces
the palace and cathedral, and was de-
signed and laid out at the command of
Carlotta, Maximilian's unfortunate
bride. No car ever runs single. They
all travel in trains of various lengths.
The drivers say it is to protect them
selves from bandits. who might other
wise overpower the passengers on one
car and rid them of their earthly gain.
Every car has two drivers, a conductor
to sell tickets and another TO collect
them. This is to prevent cheating. At
every corner the drivers blow horn to
warn pedestrians to clear the way.
The mules go at break neck speed,
while the drivers apply the whip vigor-
Ously. Very seldom more than one
mule is used in a car, as the city is
level, but that one slender mule will
carry an immense load with speed
which would turn a Kentucky mule
gray with envy.
When the street car line was first
opened in Mexico, an enterprising
stakeholder, Senior Gayosso, bought up
all the hearses in the city. He then
had funeral cars built for the tracks,
and procured the sole right to prepare
passengers and haul them to their last
resting-place. He is to-day one OF the
wealthiest men in Mexico. The first
class funeral cars for adults are built of
fine black wood. A raised part is in
the center of the car on which the coffin
is placed. A canopy, exquisitely fin
ished, covers the entire car, the sides
being artistically draped. From four
to eight beautiful black horses, with
long black plumes in their heads, haul
this strange car.
The two drivers are dressed in fine
black suits, gloves and high silk hats
bound with wide crepe bands. The
coffin is placed on the rest prepared for
it, and all around and over flowers arc
placed. Following this comes a train
of cars with the friends. The windows
are draped with white crepe and the
doors with black. A funeral train will
average twenty cars and more, if it is a
person of wealth who has died, but in
the hundreds who follow body to the
grave can not be found one woman OF 4
child
1 have asked the reason why no
women ever attend funerals in Mexico.
1t is against the rules of society. Mr.
Gayosso says women are not allowed
to go to funerals because they CRY too
much. However, wife cannot go to
her husband S funeral, nor can mother
follow her babe to its grave.
There is similarity in all the funeral
cars. Those for children are white,
drawn by white horses. Those for the
poor are, like other things in this world
for the poor, cheap and shabby. The
poor Indian can have funeral car and
two passage tickets for fifty cents by
applying to the police. He can even
hire a plain, implanted coffin to carry
the dead to the grave. Once there the
body is wrapped in serape and con-
signed to a grave which has been rented
for from two to five years. At the end
of that time the grave is opened and
the bleaching bones are cast into
corner kept for that purpose, where
they lay bleaching in the hot Southern
sun. exposed to the gaze Of the public.
Funerals cost from so cents to 81, 900.
One of the prettiest customs in Mexico
is the universal respect which greets
passing funeral. Every man, from the
millionaire to the poor-half clad peon,
takes off his hat until the sad train has
passed. Well-dressed senoras bow
their heads and silently cross them
selves, while the Indian women kneel
in prayer.-Neltie Bly,, in N. 7. Mail
and Express.